NASA reverses conference ban on six Chinese

AFP, BEIJING

Tue, Oct 22, 2013 - Page 6

NASA has reversed a decision to ban six Chinese scientists from a space conference, Chinese state media said, after prominent US astronomers vowed to boycott the meeting in a row over academic freedom.

The US space agency had barred them from participating in the meeting on exoplanets — bodies outside the solar system — in California early next month, saying it was legally obliged to do so because of their nationality.

A NASA committee has now written to the six to change course, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We have since been able to clarify the intent of the referenced legislation and are pleased to inform you that this decision has been reversed and your paperwork is being reviewed for clearance,” Xinhua quoted the letter as saying.

The initial decision to block the six led to an academic uproar and some leading US astronomers, including Yale University’s Debra Fischer, announced plans to boycott the conference.

Geoff Marcy, an astronomy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in an e-mail to the organizers: “The meeting is about planets located trillions of miles away, with no national security implications.”

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also blasted NASA’s denial of the researchers’ applications as discriminatory, arguing that politics should have no place at academic meetings.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden responded earlier this month by pledging to review the committee’s decision, which he blamed on “mid-level managers” at the agency’s Ames Research Center, which is hosting the event.

Ninety-seven percent of NASA staff were sent home without pay due to the partial US government shutdown this month after Congress failed to pass a budget in time.